Elder Cultivator

Leonid wondered if he had opened up the wrong file. It already had a thousand pages of information. Had he accidentally copied all the other scrolls data into this final one somehow? It should have just said Shelach. Well, that was the first word.

No, it shouldn’t have been copied from the information on Sudin. The text was talking about Shelach. Leonid took a look at the scroll, the image, and finally the output text. Then he clicked on a word.

A tiny pixel was highlighted on the image. He zoomed in… and in.

“Huh. Look at that. It is a word.” He couldn’t make it out with his naked eyes, and even his energy senses could hardly pick out the tiny writing squashed together to make up the text of the name.

Then he recognized glyphs that he recognized as being part of formations. And then he had to call for emergency assistance.

-----

Fifteen minutes later, Formation Grandmaster Catarina and Grandmaster Engineer Uzun were standing in the same room as Leonid. Timothy the warden was also there, making Leonid feel both that he was in danger but also well protected from said danger.

“What are the damages?” Uzun asked.

“I’m not quite sure,” Leonid answered. “Everheart protocols were being followed, so it should be cut off from the rest of the network. Assuming these formation markings didn’t do anything.”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t change anything if we can help it. First I need to review these images.”

She began nudging the representative image that the system was displaying, focusing on that instead of the actual scroll. Meanwhile, Uzun carefully scanned the computer systems in the area with his senses, looking first for any sort of physical breaches.

“Is there anything I should do?” Leonid asked.

“Keep a careful watch on that scroll,” Catarina said. “I’m not quite sure what it’s supposed to be doing yet and we don’t want any surprises.”

Catarina first followed the runes in the order that the system had detected the actual text went, but didn’t find any sense within them. While Leonid had indicated there was likely another layer beneath that, the images didn’t have sufficient resolution and she wasn’t risking interacting with the scroll just yet. She decided to try scanning across the page horizontally and vertically to see if that made the flow make sense. She simply wasn’t making out the connections, even though all of the runes should have been linked together somehow.

“System checks return normal. Software shows no signs of tampering, and hardware is intact,” Uzun commented. “It’s possible Everheart has an intimate understanding of the error checking process and accounted for it, but we’d have to get the team responsible for the code in here to verify.”

“Might as well send for them,” Catarina said. “This will take me a while, and having a team wouldn’t help me for this part.”

-----

Several hours later, they had verified as much as they could that the detached input system was not tainted. Even if it had been they could have disposed of everything- an expensive proposition, but better than risking some sort of infiltration. Technically, Everheart protocols were just the maximum level of caution and could apply to others… but there were reasons it had its name.

Catarina had reached the limits of what she could do without directly interacting with the scroll containing Shelach’s name. The images simply didn’t give a complete enough picture of whatever formations were in place.

They shouldn’t be terribly powerful- Catarina didn’t even detect a power source- but they still had to be cautious. “Leonid, if you could hand that over to Timothy now.”

He did so, treating it as if it might explode at any moment- though if it was going to do that in particular, it likely already would have.

Timothy held it, creating a shield of energy around it. Seeing that there was no reaction, Catarina carefully reached through with her own senses. Timothy’s energy didn’t interfere with hers in any way, which made him the best choice to minimize risk and maximize her efficiency.

Catarina’s senses managed to pick up even smaller glyphs, including sub-runes embedded into the larger- if still quite small- runes that made up the first tier. But that wasn’t the end of things. She realized that there were layers- the ink in deeper layers of the thick material wasn’t in precisely the same spots. Both actual text and runes continued onto the deeper layers, and Catarina finally began to get a picture of how everything was arranged.

Small runes and sub-runes were only the beginning, but the layers turned it into a three dimensional formation which allowed energy to flow around obstructions she had noticed previously. All that put together… and she was able to determine what the formation did, finally.

“We shouldn’t put this in the system,” Catarina said. “Or alternatively, we must be extremely cautious. Perhaps we shouldn’t even mention the name of this Shelach fellow outside of secure areas.” As Catarina spoke, she felt a slight reaction from the page- specifically upon speaking the name. She paused for a few moments to verify that what she thought should be happening actually was.

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“Does that imply that even Everheart was cautious about sharing this information?” Uzun asked.

“Indeed,” Catarina confirmed. “It appears he significantly under exaggerated how much he knew.” That didn’t mean she was going to assume everything was accurate… but clearly they should take things cautiously.

Rather than attempt to get more complex systems involved, Catarina simply began to read through. Nothing appeared to be further encoded, though perhaps there might be more than met the eye. Either way, it revealed a story shrouded in mystery. And for all the density of lettering and effort made to keep things secret, the total volume of knowledge about Shelach was quite limited.

Aside from generally operating in the Trigold Cluster, there were no known associations. Neither people nor groups. If he was tied to a sect, it wasn’t public knowledge. The only clear things were the man’s name and probably that he was a man, though there were no reliable physical descriptions.

Everheart had tied the man to a large number of high profile deaths, though any connection between them beyond that was unclear. In addition, the connection was that the deaths were mysterious with no visible signs.

The notes Everheart left actually speculated on that count- and Catarina was surprised that he admitted to speculation instead of being certain of the truth. He had apparently seen three bodies in person he suspected were the result of Shelach’s actions, and he found needle marks in two of them. He had suspected poison, but found no traces of anything he could recognize, nor were there signs of struggle.

Any sort of possible Anchor was unknown. However, Everheart knew of a death long in the past of another Domination cultivator that had the same signs- or lack of signs. That was why he could only presume Shelach was a Domination cultivator or an equivalent level of power. Even at their most defenseless, a Domination cultivator wouldn’t suddenly die to an Augmentation cultivator.

As far as aiding anyone in the Scarlet Alliance with understanding anchors or advancing to Domination in any way, the information was useless. But as a warning… it reminded them that some cultivators had been around for vast periods of time, and not all were openly throwing their weight around.

The Scarlet Alliance would do everything they could not to offend such a character… but they didn’t know what those things were. While they didn’t generally go around causing trouble, if he had a particular faction he favored, it wasn’t clear what they would do. Then again, there weren’t any indications of him wiping out entire sects. Everheart mentioned a few incidents of sects being wiped out that some people associated with him, but he mentioned those having too much evidence to believe they were connected.

So maybe the Scarlet Alliance would only lose someone important if they got in his way. Not particularly reassuring, but less of an existential threat than certain other Domination cultivators at the moment.

-----

A careful review was done of all the scrolls on Sudin, just in case. However, they were nothing more than ink on paper, plus minor enchantments for the purpose of making both last indefinitely. That information made it into their networked systems as top secret, unlike the scroll on Shelach which was sealed in a vault for individual viewing only.

Information on Sudin had already been reviewed before the scanning process, but it did mention a few notable pieces of information about Anchors. That led to some theories among their members, but to verify them they’d have to visit an anchor… and preferably the remnants of what the Twin Soul Sect had.

Velvet was returning from the Chaotic Conglomeration, so she might be assigned the task to slip in among the various groups picking through the remains of the sect that was one of the most influential just a handful of decades prior.

-----

Anton wasn’t afraid of Everheart, for several reasons. He didn’t care if the man was a Domination cultivator or not, the only place they could meet up was the lower realms where Anton would have an advantage. And he also chose to not be afraid of the man, as he believed that would actually make him weaker.

Perhaps it was a matter of devotion, where it would actually change things… or perhaps a confident front would suffice. Either way, though he’d only faced off against an injured Everheart once in the past, Anton was far more confident now. Both of their strengths had increased, but Anton was confident he’d grown more.

Of course, that didn’t mean he would trust the man. It didn’t even seem that Everheart trusted himself, so if they did ever meet again he wasn’t simply going to let down his guard.

But the man had a weakness. He cared about things. Maybe not many, but at the very least he cared about Vari’s aunt Silvija, and at least a little bit about her. And he cared about causing trouble for the upper realms- far more than he cared about the mischief he’d achieved on Ceretos.

Anton also had things he cared about- indeed, they were far more numerous. But it was only a weakness when one refused to accept they were a real human with feelings. That was Anton’s belief, at least. Having things one cared about did provide more openings to strike at, but also more motivation to be better. To be stronger. And to have allies who could cover for any potential weaknesses.

Technically, Everheart had allies- or at least subordinates he had poached from various factions in the upper realms. That was all well and good… but given that Everheart had access to perhaps the most extensive stores of knowledge in the entire upper realms- at least on an individual basis- the fact that he was not raising his own disciples really said something about him. The man was, when he chose to be, an excellent conveyer of knowledge. It was too bad he wasted that potential.

Anton chuckled, knowing that thinking about an older individual’s wasted potential wasn’t particularly common… but as cultivators, it was never really too late to live up to their potential. Before he was a cultivator, Anton had certainly made use of his own potential- but without natural energy it was merely comparable to a weak Body Tempering cultivator when he was in his youth.

Then he discovered a much broader potential existed than he could have ever imagined- he’d known about cultivators, but never thought he could be one. Nor had he been motivated to. He’d been a bit too focused only on what was immediately around him in the world. He didn’t regret those times, but he now knew he needed more.

Arrows pierced through empty space. Somehow, they were more accurate when Anton pictured Everheart’s dumb face there- even if the only real grief had been during Anton’s early cultivation and when he robbed Ceretos before he left. And some trouble he’d caused the Scarlet Alliance. And how he might continue placing them in peril.

The man was disliked for a reason. But of everyone in the world who’d actually met him, Anton perhaps disliked him the least. He was just another lost soul who had yet to come to maturity- it didn’t matter whether he was 12 or 1200.

Maybe he should send a letter. That should produce interesting results. Of course, he’d ask for the Scarlet Alliance’s approval since they would have to deal with however Everheart responded.

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